Physiological measurement and stimulation techniques that exploit interfaces to the skin have been of interest for more than 40 years, the former beginning in as early as 1966 with electromyography of laryngeal muscles. Despite much progress over this time, nearly all associated device technologies continue to rely on conceptually old designs. Typically, small numbers of bulk electrodes are mounted on the skin via adhesive tapes, mechanical clamps/straps and/or penetrating needles, often mediated by conductive gels, with terminal connections to separate boxes that house collections of rigid circuit boards, power supplies and communication components. These systems have many important capabilities, but they are poorly suited for practical application outside of research labs or clinical settings, due to difficulties in establishing long-lived, robust electrical contacts that do not irritate the skin, and in achieving integrated systems with overall sizes, weights and shapes that do not cause discomfort during prolonged use.
Recently, a number of patents and publications have disclosed flexible, resilient and implantable electrode arrays. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2007/0043416 discloses an implantable flexible elastic support with a plurality of electrodes held in contact with a target tissue. Similarly, International Patent Application Publication WO 98/49936 discloses a resilient electrode array for sensing signals associated (mapping) and ablating heart tissue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,737 discloses an electrophysiology mapping system for displaying a 3D model of epicardial and endocardial surfaces with dynamic display of potential distribution data.
U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2003/0149456 discloses a multi-electrode cardiac lead adapter which incorporates a multiplexing circuit allowing for control by a conventional single lead cardiac pacing pulse generator. Similarly, U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2006/0173364 discloses a multichannel electrophysiology acquisition system which utilizes a digital multiplexing circuit build on a conventional integrated circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,821 discloses an implantable sensor array system with an associated protective member which prevents the sensors from interacting with the surrounding environment until it is disabled.
International Application Publication WO 2009/114689, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses flexible and scalable sensor arrays for recording and modulating physiologic activity. US Patent Application Publication Nos. US 2008/0157235, US 2008/0108171, US 2010/0002402 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,557,367 issued Jul. 7, 2009, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, disclose multilayer stretchable, foldable and printable semiconductor devices.